Mandy Maroney is a writer who lives by the sea in Melbourne with her partner, Michael, a dog and two cats. She spent her childhood in Papua New Guinea and the country has left its mark on her heart and imagination. She’s always loved books and writing and has worked as a librarian, medical secretary and volunteer English tutor.

When a writing teacher urged her to ‘write the book only you could write’, she knew what that was. Her family had left PNG suddenly at Independence and she’d been trying to shape that emotional wrench into a story ever since. Going finish won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2008 and after many revisions, is finally ready for the world.